


Almost The Right Partner

by DeceitfulHonesty



Series: Almost the Right Partner [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Brotp, Tony Creeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-02 23:50:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4078618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeceitfulHonesty/pseuds/DeceitfulHonesty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony is working late in the lab again when he hears music coming from another room. A bit of sneaking around leads to a surprising discovery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Almost The Right Partner

    Tony accidentally spent the whole night tinkering again. And part of the morning. He couldn’t remember what time he’d gone down to the lab, but it was nearly 4 in the morning now. Oops. Oh well, the Hulkbuster needed some major repairs after Sokovia and Pepper was out of town on a business trip, so there was no point in going up to bed.  
    “JARVIS, mute please,” Tony called to the newly restored A.I. Whatever rock song had been blasting from the speakers quieted instantly. It was AC/DC when he started, but he didn’t pay enough attention to the song to know what it was now. Temporarily, the lab was overwhelmed with silence, except for the gentle whirring of some of the smaller lab bots.  
    Tony ran his hands down his face and cracked his back a few times to start heading to bed, when he heard the soft sound of trumpets filtering through the vents. Just a gentle, slow, jazzy sort of trumpet, like the kind of music his grandma would slow dance to. He glanced at his watch again. Yep, it was definitely 4 in the morning. No one else was usually crazy enough to be up at these hours.  
    “JARVIS, where is that music coming from?” he asked.  
    “The training room, sir,” the disembodied British voice replied.  
    Tony wrinkled his nose, “Who in the— bring up the video feed from the training room.”  
    “Sir, Captain Rogers has requested that all video and audio feeds from the training room be temporarily shut down,” JARVIS responded.  
    “Well, that’s suspicious. Lock up behind me, buddy,” Tony grabbed his long-cold coffee and headed upstairs.  
    Tony took the stairs to the floor used as the training center instead of the elevator, to not alert the Captain to his presence. He crept down the hallway, stopping in a corridor that lead to the storage room before hitting the wide open room and peered around the corner. The music was much louder up here, but still quiet enough that he could hear a conversation.  
    “You know you can move your feet a bit more than that?” a feminine voice said.  
    “I know I just don’t—” a soft thud.  
    “Ow.”  
    “Sorry!”  
    “It’s fine, I’ve had worse,” a woman responded with a laugh.  
    Curiosity was going to kill him one of these days. Tony peered around the corner, taking care to stay in the shadows, and his jaw dropped. Standing in the middle of the boxing ring, chest to chest, were Steve and Natasha. Slow dancing. To grandpa music. As soon as he picked his jaw up from the floor, Tony was totally getting a video of this and putting it on Youtube. Until then, he was going to keep staring.  
    There was another soft thud, “Damnit, sorry!” Cap said.  
    “Don’t worry about it. You’ve just got to lead with more than your feet,” Natasha responded.  
    “Uh...what?” Steve asked.  
    “Let me lead for a minute,” Natasha replied, shifting her stance slightly. Steve allowed her to lead him and matched her swaying. She shifted slightly and he matched the motion, eventually following her in a small circle, “See? Lead more with you body than your feet. You’ll be less prone to stomping on your partner’s. Ready to try?”  
    Steve responded with silence, but apparently Natasha took that as an affirmative and shifted back into following. Steve took a few moments to get his bearings as the song shifted. After a deep breath, he started to sway again. He took a slight step backward and Natasha followed, shifted his stance and stepped to the side and she matched him again. Then he got cocky and took a step forward.  
    Thud. “Ow.”  
    “Damnit.”  
    “Language!”  
    Steve chuckled, “Never gonna live that down.”  
    Natasha shrugged, “Not until you do something worse.”  
    The pair lapsed into silence for a moment as Steve learned to correct his earlier mistake.  
    “So, you weren’t kidding that you had never danced with anyone,” Natasha stated.  
    “Before I signed up for Project Rebirth, no girl would look twice at me, so there wasn’t much opportunity. After, I was pretty, well….busy,” Steve replied.  
    “Stop staring at you feet.”  
    “Sorry.”  
    “Stop apologizing.”  
    “Sor— Um, OK.”  
    Natasha chuckled, “So what about after you thawed? You didn’t want to brave the night clubs in the West Village?”  
    “I’m still pretty busy.”  
    Natasha snorted, “So, out of curiosity, were you lying when we were on the run and you said that wasn’t your first kiss since 1945?”  
    A pause, “Shut up.” They both chuckled, somehow managing to stay on beat with their swaying.  
    “My lips are sealed. Now dip me,” Natasha demanded.  
    “What?!” Steve sounded panicked.  
    “Relax, I’m not asking you to battle an army of robots. Just dip me. Move your hand between my shoulders and dip.”  
    Steve seemed adamant about not moving, “What if I drop you?”  
    “It’s like a 3 foot drop, I think I’ll survive it,” she sassed back, “And I won’t hold it against you. I know you’re terrible at this.”  
    “Thanks,” Tony could almost hear Steve rolling his eyes.  
    “You want me to dip you first?” Natasha asked.  
    “No, no I got this,” Steve replied. Cautiously, as if in slow motion, Steve attempted to swing Natasha into a dip. And surprisingly, she didn’t hit the floor.  
    “See? Not rocket science,” she said. Steve pulled her back up and resumed swaying, “You know? I always assumed that whole ‘waiting for the right partner’ thing was just a way to get girls to think you were all virtuous.”  
    “And now you know I’m so terrible I had to be telling the truth?” Steve asked.  
    “Not quite. But sort of,” Natasha replied, “I’m just surprised you never thought to ask anyone for lessons. It’d be a shame to meet the right partner and then break their foot.”  
    “Well, I didn’t know many spies who learned every dance ever invented as part of their training.”  
    “I don’t know _every_ dance,” Natasha retorted, “I can’t do the Macarena to save my life.” Steve must have looked confused because Natasha continued with, “Put it on the list. It’s a 90’s thing.”  
    “So, am I still so terrible I’d break my partner’s foot?” Steve asked, part joking but part sounding like he was genuinely concerned.  
    “Well, we’ve only had a few lessons, but I’d say you’ll be ready for the right partner when they come along,” Natasha said.  
    Tony took this as his cue to get out of dodge before they wrapped up and crept back down the stairs to the kitchen. When he heard the next song crescendo, he knew he escaped notice and breathed out a sigh of relief.  
    The next morning, Tony made no mention of the late night dance lesson. The team filtered in and out of the kitchen as they started their morning routines and needed calories to get going. Tony stayed at the counter answering emails, like every morning, even though most got forwarded to Pepper. It took every once of willpower Tony possessed to not comment when Steve wandered in after his morning run, with a bit more swing his step than normal. Even Tony could tell some things should remain private.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's another one of those stories that popped into my head and had to get written down pronto. In my mind, Steve and Natasha are best buds and she's helping him out, but this could read romantically too. Whatever floats your boat (ship).  
> Also, I just finished this and it's nearly 2am here so apologies for any egregious typos. I'll re-edit in the morn when my eyes start to focus again. Enjoy!  
> main blog: one-armed-sad-trash-hobo.tumblr.com  
> writing only blog: sad-trash-writing.tumblr.com


End file.
